When I Think of Research ...

I went into a class on building research competencies, thinking it was going to be complicated and really not understanding the value research can have in the field of early childhood.  Instead, I learned that it really wasn't all that complicated and that the results could have great benefits and really make an impact in the way we work with children.

I have always thought of research being boring and long drawn out, but as I was able to come up with my own project and propose questions for research that were important to me in the field of early childhood, I became so excited that I wanted to fulfill the research project itself.  I wished my class would extend for a longer period of time so I can actually conduct the project.  I can see how valuable the results could be and I am trying to find a way to conduct the project on my own.  This is a very different view than I had from the beginning.

I have learned that there is a specific process that one must go through just to set up a specific research project.  Steps and rules must be well thought out and followed.  I had to learn different methods of collecting data, different research methods and types of experiments, lines of measurement and analyzing of the data, how to choose study participants and requirements, how to prove validity, and many other things.
I realized in the planning process that there were things I needed to further define before I could conduct the study, and even now I do not have enough information to actually conduct my study.

One challenge I have encountered in designing a simulated research study is the need to define general terms.  My research study intends to answer the question "Do children with large emotional vocabularies demonstrate higher levels of self-regulation and prosocial skills? To successfully answer this question, I needed to be able to define specific levels of emotional vocabulary, how many words should children know at age 4 & 5 and how many words is considered low, medium, and high.  Next I had to define what self-regulation and prosocial skills look like.  To do this I needed to find specific assessments that could be used to determine children's skill level in these areas.  This challenge took time to research myself and find something that matched what I was already thinking, or time to develop something myself that could be understood by others and easily duplicated.

While I realized research is not necessarily complicated in my mind, it is time consuming just putting the research project together before the research can actually be conducted.  There is lots of prep work and thinking.  In the end, I believe the outcomes and results greatly help to increase professionals knowledge and practice in working with children.  If I could use this study to provide ways to increase a child's skill to better control themselves and to react appropriately to others emotions, I could really help advance the field of early childhood and provide a much needed support for teachers of all ages.